grabau and a c



H. E. GRABAU AND A C. SCHWARTZ..

TIRE CAS|NGEABR1C AMD METHOD 0E MAKING THE sAME.

APPLICATION FILED AUG.1,19I8.

Patented July 27, 1920.

3 SHEETS-SHEET l.

Mum/1.16015 @3% ww/mm/M SH01/new H. E. GRABAU AND A C. SCHWARTZ. TIRE CASING FABRIC AND METHOD 0F MAKING THE SAME.

APPLICATIN FILED AUG.I, I9I8. 1,347,848. Patented July 27, 1920.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

fwuaM-toz @fw/them HANS E. GRABAU AND A CHARLES scHWAnfra'or NEW YORK, N; Y.; SAID GRABAU AssIG'Noni'ro SAID SCHWARTZ. y

TIRE-CASINGFABRIG ANDMETD or MAKING. jrHnsAMn.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented July 217, 1920 yOriginal yapplication Ylei January 11,'1818, Serial No. 21'1,3 7 8. "Divided and this .application filed August 1, 191s. serial No'.' 247,816.

f many, and who has taken out his first naturalization papers, residing at New York city, New York county, New/York State, and A CHARLES SCHWARTZ, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York city, New York cou1ityNew York. State, have invented certain new and useful linprovements in Tire-Casing Fabric and Methods of AMaking the Sa1ne,of which .the following is a specifica-tion, this application being a kdivision of our prior application, No.

' 211,378, 'filed'.lanuary'll, 1918.

There are in general vuse at the present time two distinct types of pneumatic tires,

namely, fabric tires and 'cord tires, the diflference in the two types residing inthe character Vof the strain-resisting material composing the foundation or so-called can cass of the tirervshoe or casing. The cord tire-is today well recognized. as superiorto the fabric tire,` and it wouldundoubtedly largely replace the fabric'tire but for the factthat the manufacturing costA of the cord tire is of necessity materially greater than that of the fabrictire and the useof the i cord tire is' hence 'largely confined vtothe 30 higher priced automobiles. i

yVarious attempts have heretofore .been made to improve the construction ofthe fabric tire to embody the advantages possessed by the cord tire, and at the sametime retain thelower manufacturing cost of the fabric tire. A

ln our prior Patent No. 1,227,425, we have described' a tire casing which may be classified asV regards its manufacturing .method as al fabric tire, and which'to a large extent overcomes the defects of prior fabric tires. The tire casing fabric of the present application constitutes specificallyran improvement on the invention of our prior patent. .fis pointed out inthat patent, the foundation or carcass of the fabric casing is built up by superimposing a plurality yof layers of fabric which are cemented together by interposed layers of rubber and attached to the beads of the casing. TJpon the car cass thus formed the rubber `portion of the tire is built by a molding and vulcanizing process, the rubber uniting the several layers of fabric to vform a unitary structure.

' ln the casing of our prior patent we sought to obviate the defects 4of the ordinary tabric tire by taking advantage of the dfrerence in the 'stresses Vto which the tire is subjectedin different directions by reason of the contained compressed air on the one hand yand the traction stress of driving or braking the vehiclejexerted through the tires, on'theother; l The bursting stress due tothe compressed-air is generally very much greater than` the traction stress and acts transversely yof the tire, "while the tractionv stress on the other hand acts circumferen tially or at right angles to the bursting stress. As described in our patent, we made up theV carcass ofthe tire from annular strips Vof a fabric of heavy untwisted strands, each strand consisting of a number of threads lying parallel; and closely adja-Y cent, with 'the strands held together Vby spaced single warp threads of very much less strength than the bundles of threads in the other direction. rhis fabric was used in the tire with the heavy bundles of threads running substantially transverse from bead to bead, to resist the heavy bursting" stress from the contained air, and with the lighter spaced sin'gle'threads extending circumferentially of the tire to resist the stresses due to the tractive effort. There was also considerable deformation of the tire where it was in contact with the ground, due to the weight-of the vehicle. So, also 'we have found that when the tire was in contact with the ground, and subjected to a heavy load, it would sway sidewise. These several defects we have ascertained resulted from the lack of diagonalbracing from bead to bead of the tire, this being true even when the ransverse threads were placed somewhat obliquely as explained in` the patent.

In order to obviate these defects, we have ascertained that it is desirable that the strands or heavy bundies of threads, instead of extending at right angles from bead to bead of the tire should extend at an angle of 50 thereto, e., that the strands of one layer of the fabric should extend at 450 from bead to bead in one direct-ion, and the strands of the next layer should extend from bead to bead at an angle of 45 in the opposite direction; therebyY bringing the strands of the one layer at"an angle of 900 to the strands of the other layer. It was impracticable, however, from a commercial stand poiut,.to employ the fabric describedzin our Patent No. 1,227,425 in this way, for the reason that to cut that fabricl on. the bias would leave the transverse strands of a` Y cut 0H", at each end of the layer, a piece havinga length equal toA the width of the layer, which would have involved an excessive waste ofmaterial. According to the present invention this defectis overcome by reversing the relative arrangement of the warp to the filler, so that, inthe new fabric, claimedherein, the filler is substituted for the warp, thereby permitting the material to be cut on the bias and insuringthat both the strands or heavy bundles of threads, and the weft threads should extend from bead to bead of the tire.

Another defect in our patented construction, which we have overcome in our present tire, resulted from the fact that our fabric did not have smooth surfaces. 0n the'contrary the strands to some extent gave the fabric av ribbed structure, there being crevices between the strands. Indeed, as stated in the patent, we contemplated employing these crevices 0n the inner surface of the carcass to provide storage for the talc or lubricator which is customarily used between the inner tube and casing. In the lfurther use, however, it was found that if one layer of the carcass becamedetached or loosened from. its contacting layers, in one or more spots, due to heavy blows, defects in manufacture orother causes, the layers would rub and chafe on each other, and because of the slightly ribbed structure of the fabric, that this chafing tended to weaken the tire, and to occasion blowouts. in our present structure, we have provided a fabric having smooth surfaces, thereby remedying this defect.

In the accompanying drawings, we have Villustrated our novel fabric and the manner of using the same to make a tire. 1n these drawings: v

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a portion of a tire casing with some of the parts broken away in Aorder to illustrate the arrangement of the strands and connecting threads in the successive layers of fabric;

Fig. 2 is a transverse sectional view through va tire casing;

, F ig. 3 is aplan view of a piece of our new fabricas woven and before being coated with rubber and compressed;

Fig. 4: is an enlarged transverse sectional view taken substantially on the line 4 4 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 isv an enlarged longitudinal sectional view taken substantially on the line 5;--5 of Fig. C3;v e

Fig. Gis a plan view of a strip cut on the bias from the fabric'illustrated in Fig. 3 after the latter has been rubber coated and compressed; Y

Fig. 7 is an enlarged sectional view taken substantially on the `line 7-7 of Fig. 6; and

Fig. 8 is an enlarged view taken 'substantially on the line 8-8 of Fig. 6.

possibleand its structure is such that it be-l comesa dense flat sheet when subjected to pressure. 1n preparing the fabric for the carcass `of tires a length of the same is passed through a thin bath comprising rubber dis solved in a hydro-carbon such as gasolene.

By reason ofthe fabrics softness and pliability the liquid rubber penetrates entirely through the same thereby coating, not only the outer surfaces; but also the surfaces, of all the threads in the strands. As the liquid dries, the rubber' is deposited on all the surfaces of all the threads. Consequently, the threads are provided with a coating which holds `them together and further, acts to eliminate the destructive chafing of one thread on another, which so quickly wears out tires in actual service.

After having spread the fabric as just described, a. thin layer of rubber is applied to both surfaces thereof, being secured by the rubber cement or coating previously applied. These layers ofrubber are very thin and may be applied by passing the cement coated fabric through` a skimming machine. Usually this machine comprises a series of parallel rollers between a pair of which the fabric is passed. The rubber is supplied to the upper roll and is applied thereby to the fabric, thetwo-Vrolls being forced toward each other with considerable force whereby the rubber sheet is pressed onto the fabric and the fabric itself compressed into a dense sheet of uniform thickness as shown in Figs. t, 5 and 6. After the layer of rubber has been applied to one surface, the fabric is reversed and passed throughithe machine a second time to have a rubber sheet applied tothe other surface thereof.

The rubber coated-fabric is then cut `on the bias as indicated by the dotted lines a, a

and b, b, F ig.3, to give strips as illustrated 1. latter has lbeen coated -with rubber cement" and had the thin layers of l'rubber applied to As stated, the strip of is cutlfromV the fabric illustrated in Fig.v `3 after the itssurfaces.' :It is obvious, however, that the bias strip may be rubberized vafter being cut from fabric which has not been rubber treated. The changey in the cross sectional lshape of the strands, after the fabric has been compressed isV apparent from. a comparison of Figs. 4L and 7. The

former showsthe fabric as woven, whereas the lattershows it after being rubber impregnated, coated and compressed.v The thin' surface covering rubber layers, 13 and lil, are not so thick but what the outline of theV threads 1l and l2 can be distinguished to some extent, as shown in Fig. 6, although the outlines have been exaggerated, as it is impossible to illustrate them withV pen and ink vas `.they really appear.

pressure as'followsdater in the mold, it will be seen `from Fig. 7 that the strands have been compressed into very nearly quadrangulargashape in cross section. Furtherniorathe whole fabric has been flattened out into sheet of substantially uniform thickness` there being no crevices between the'strands.' .Because thefstrands are coinpressed their cross sectional area is less thereby-permitting the cross threads l1 to extend from edge to edge ofthe fabric in a broken line; thus a straightportion of a Y cross thread is lon top of one strand, and a straight portion on the bottom of the next strand, the saidl portions being connected by a portionl passing between the strands in' a substantially straight line. Furthermore, the threads or members which form the strands are substantially straight (see Figf)V noty Vbeing curved as in the uncompressed fabricisee Fig. 5).'. Because of this structure the individual threads of the strands are not displaced nor do they-'chafe on one another or the cross threads 11 toy any appreciable extent when subjected to varying tensions inthe tire. Moreover, as

.the strands themselves are flat and straight,

' tially straight lines, the fabric'is inexten- Although the fabric has not beensubjected to as great a lines. Hence any tension applied in the direction of their length, tends to change them from broken toV straight lines, thereby permitting the fabric to be stretched in this direction. These features, namely, the inextensibility ofv the fabric in the direction of the strands and'V its extensibility :in the direction of the cross threads, we believe explain certain important advantages of our tire,which will bedescribed later.

The strip of Fig. 6 therefore comprises a rubber. coated and impregnated fabric Yconsisting of oblique or Vdiagonal strands which are connected by spaced threads, each of the strands being made up of a bundle V of threads which has been pressed into a .substantially solid mass, polygonal in cross section, and with the side ofV one strand in contact throughout its surface with aside surface of the next strand. The sti ip, therefore, in effect is a dense sheet of uniform thickness consisting of innumerable small parallel threads arranged in superposed layers, extending fromv edge to edge thereof, and held -against displacement.

The strip shownl in Fig. V6, the length of Vwhich is only limited Yby the width of the fabric shown in Fig. 3 and may besufhcient to form alayer of the tire carcass, is placed on the core and shaped thereto to form a layer, as l5, the edges vbeing arranged around the beads 17. As is well known, the cirumferential length of the tire at the tread is. greater than at the beads and consequently the fabric must be tucked in at the beads or stretched at the tread to compensate for the difference in lengths. Fabric tires which are tucked in at the beads are therefore weak in resistance to circumferential tension at the beads. Cord tires, on the other hand have the cords slightly spaced at the tread and close together at,

the beads.V Consequently their resistance to penetration at the tread is not a maximum. In shaping our fabric to the core, we preferably stretch the fabric slightly at the tread and compress it circumfereutially at the beads, thereby compensating for the different lengths. The inner layer l5 of fabric is placed on the core, as shown in Figs. l and 2, the strands being arranged obliquely preferably at an angle of substantially 45D tothe longitudinal direction of the tire, and the connecting threads ll therefore are also atan angle of 450 to the longitudinal Vdirection of the tire since they are at 90 to the strands. Although the strip is inextensible in the direction of the strands,and readily extensible in the direction of the cross threads, as explained above, it may be stretched toa slight degree in a direction making 45o to the strands, that is in a direction longitudinally ofthe tire. This permits the tread portion to be stretched slightly to allowf for some of the difference thestrands in successive layers makes an angleof about. 90.. rEhe number of layers of our fabric depends onV the size-oit the tire andthe service for 4which it is designed. For example, a 34x11 tire for'pleasure cars has three or four layers of our. fabric,I and is stronger than any Vfabric tire with its seven or nine layers of fabric or any cord tire with tWo'layers of large cordsor seven or nine layers of small cords.

The edgeV portions of the strips may` be-secu-red to the beads in any desiredl manner,

and' the rubber tread iSv-is appliedlin the usual Way, a breaker strip. 119 heilig employed' if desired. i

After the carcass ofthe tire has been built up and the rubber tread attached, the mold is applied andl the entire tire is'subjected to pressure and vulcanized. This pressure fur.L ther compresses andiiattens the layers of ourl fabric. At the tread portions of the fabric, Where perhaps, the strands have been slightly separatedby the Astretching rmentioned above, this pressure conrpresses and flattens the strands so that the sides thereofare pressed into direct contactagain thereby formi-ng a dense .imperforate1 layer i of fabric of substantially uniform thickness. l

It Will be evident from theforegoing description -that our fabric, because it has strength in all directions as distinguished from layers of cords Which have no substantial strength at right angles to their length, can be laid on the core with mini* mum labor like the ordinary fabric strips, and the manufacture ofv a carcass from. our fabric requires less labor than the* usual fabric casing for the reason that a less num-y ber of strips are used. Furthermore, our tire is stronger than the cordtires and` re sembles them in the desirable feature of having the greatest tensional strength of each layer obliquely or diagonally. Again our tire requires less rubber than eitherI the fabric or cord tires as the latter has each cord embedded in a sheaf of rubber and the former has a layer'of. rubber between each of the many layers of fabric.V Moreover the structure of the fabrici's such, and it is incorporated in the tire in a. manner, that practically eliminates internal friction in A the layers of fabric themselves, and of one layer on another.

This latter feature follows from the fact that the fabric is of uniform thickness, has

smoothV surfaces and is inextensible in one direction. l/V ith the usual form of Woven fabric a stress in any :direction causes a strain. or stretch. in that. drectiom. this resulting from.` one set of threads tending to Vof threads tochafe or saw on, the other set.

As the stress in the tire changesthere is corresponding chafing whichV soon. resultsiin a blow-out. In our tire, on the other hand, any stress; is resisted by the inextensible strands ofV one or another of the layers of the carcass. Thus if the tire is stressed in the direction of theI cross threads of Yone layer, thesethreads Wil-l not be stretchethbecause the inextensible strands of the next layer which extend in the same direction as said threads Willi resist the strain. Furthermore, if` the tire is stressed: in a direction which; is different from that in Which Ithe strands of any of the layers eXtend,sucli stress would. be resisted. by the strands of two or more layers acting together. Tn other Words, the force causing the stress would in effect be divided into two com ponents, one acting in the'` direction of the strands of one layer and the other component in the direction of the strands of another layer. In this manner all the forces acting to deformthetire or stressthe fabric are resistedV by the strands, thus relieving the cross threads. Hence as the cross threads are not stretched there is no chafing of the same on the strands. Moreover, as the strands consist of bundles of straight parallel threads, there is no chafing of one strand on another..

' Although a specific embodiment of the invention has been disclosed, it is to be un# derstood that changes except as limited by the appended claims may be made VWithout departing from the spirit of the invention.

Having thus described the invention What is claimed as new andV desired to be secured by Letters Patent is l. The method ofmaling a dense strip comprising several layers of oblique parallel: threads for the carcass of pneumatic tires consisting in interweaving spaced single threads With Warps comprising a plurality of parallel threads arranged in su-l perposed layers, impregnating the fabric with rubber, compressing it to Hatten it, and cutting the fabric on the bias into strips.

2. A strip of tire casing fabric of a Width to extend from bead to bead of a tire and having its longitudinal ends at an angle of substantially 450 to its length comprising a dense sheet of substantially uniform thickness consisting of straight parallel threads arranged in superposed layers extending from side to side of the strip at an angle of substantially 45o to its length and spaced connecting threads extending at an angle of substantially 90 to the first mentioned threads to resist lateral separation of the latter threads in making the tire. Y

3. A strip of tire casing fabric including flat strands interwoven With undulating n cross threads, the strands being substan tially quadrangular in .cross section and the side of one strand being in contact substantially throughout its surface With a side of the adjacent strand, the vstrands and cross threads each extending obliquely from edge to edge of the strip.

4;. A strip of tire casing fabric including fiat strands forming the Warp, interwoven with single spaced weft threads undulating under and over the strands, said strands comprising a plurality of substantially straight threads disposed in superposed layers, the side of one strand being in contact 'with the side of an adjacent strand and the strands and Weft threads each extending obliquely from edge to edge of the strip.

In testimony whereof, We affix 'our signatures.

HANS E. GRABAU. A CHARLES SCHWARTZ. 

